Ethical code: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 19:40, 25 December 2004

Revision as of 21:01, 25 January 2005

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Such codes exist in most [[profession]]s to guide interactions between specialists with advanced knowledge, e.g. [[physician|doctors]], [[lawyer]]s, [[engineer]]s, [[stonemason]]s, and the general public. They are often not part of any more general theory of [[ethics]] but accepted as pragmatic necessities.

As the public is in general incapable of distinguishing good from bad decisions, ethical codes are normally part of a profession's own self-regulation. Public guidance typically is confined to ensuring that there is such an internally consistent code, and imposing stricter rules if a profession, e.g. [[accounting]], is deficient in the extreme.

Ethical codes are distinct from [[moral code]]s that apply to the education and religion of a whole larger society. Not only are they more specialized, they are more internally consistent, and typically can be applied without a great deal of interpretation by an ordinary practitioner of the speciality.